After a lifetime of helping people deal with trauma from residential schools, Barney Williams has a unique perspective on reconciliation.
Williams says he was surprised and honoured to be selected this week as one of the recipients of the Lieutenant-Governor’s Reconciliation Awards, created three years ago to recognize extraordinary contributions to healing relationships with indigenous people in BC.
“I’m happy to be recognized for my work with the commission but also my life-long journey as a survivor and helping people to identify what happened to them,” he says. “I’m really humbled to know that the work I did wasn’t in vain.”
Williams has spent his life counselling and helping others on their own healing journeys while he continues his own. From 2008-2013, he was the Elder in Residence for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Survivors Committee.
He’s 84 years old now and lives in Campbell River. He continues to educate people about the damage caused by residential schools, and help survivors find hope and healing.
